NME – PC

HARDWARE
FUNDAMENTALS

Dr. A.T.RAJAMANICKAM M.Sc., M.Phil., M.E., Ph.D.,

Associate Professor of Electronics

SRMV College of Arts and Science (Autonomous)

Coimbatore.
 UNIT 1
➢ Personal Computer
▪ Evolution - PC to Pentium – Technical
Specifications – PC System
➢ Inside PC
▪ Motherboard – BIOS - Bus Standards – SMPS
➢ On-Board memory
▪ PC’s Memory Organisation – Memory Packaging
- I/O ports.
 Introduction to Personal Computer (PC)

❑ Programmable Machine
✓ Microprocessor

✓ Memory

✓ I/O Device

Fig.1 Block diagram of programmable machine OR Personal Computer or System

 Classification

Classification of computer—Microcomputers
(desktop computer or Personal Computer (PC),
notebook computers or laptop, netbook, tablet
computer, handheld computer or Personal Digital
Assistant (PDA), smart phones, minicomputers,
mainframe computers, supercomputers )
Generation
 Generation

First generation (1940 to 1956): Using vacuum tubes

Second generation (1956 to 1963): Using transistors

Third generation (1964 to 1971): Using integrated circuits

Fourth generation (1971 to present): Using microprocessors

Fifth generation (present and next): Using artificial intelligence

 EVOLUTION – PC Through PENTIUM

❑ IBM PC
✓ International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation is an

American multinational technology company

headquartered, New York
✓ In the small lab of IBM in Atlanta, engineers were given

the task of building the low end IBM Product.

✓ Designers learned the drawback of existing systems in the

market and incorporating all the features of popular

systems into their new product called IBM PC.
✓ In August 1981, IBM introduced the personal computer

✓ The development of the OS was contracted to Microsoft

 EVOLUTION – PC Through PENTIUM

❑ IBM PC-XT (PC-XTENDED)

✓ IBM introduced PC-XT in March 1983 with 10 MB of hard

disk.
✓ Many features are included in PC XT

✓ RAM 640 kb with expansion slots

✓ IBM introduced many model in XT both hardware and

software enhancement
 EVOLUTION – PC Through PENTIUM

❑ IBM PC- AT (advanced technology)

✓ IBM introduced PC-AT in August 1984. It uses Intel's 286

16 bit processor
✓ 16 bit bus transfer and 24 bit memory addressing

✓ Protected mode memory management with multitasking

OS like UNIX
✓ Clock rate 6MHz (3 to 5 times increased performance)

✓ Three additional DMA channels

✓ Seven additional interrupt levels etc.,

✓ Latest versions of PC-AT with 80386 and 80486 were

released with increased features.

 EVOLUTION – PC Through PENTIUM

❑ IBM PC- AT (advanced technology)

✓ Later IBM introduced PC-AT with 80386 and 80486

✓ Clock rate increased in processor

✓ Buses and the adapter cards were unable to cope with the

increased speeds and hence failed.

✓ To solve the problem, chip sets were designed (in-built ICs)
 EVOLUTION – PC Through PENTIUM

❑ IBM PC- Pentium (5th generation INTEL processor)

✓ IBM with 80586

✓ Clock rate increased in processor 100MHz

❖ 80586 (Pentium)

❖ Pentium II

❖ Pentium III

❖ Pentium IV in 2000
 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
.
 SPECIFICATIONS
.
SPECIFICATIONS
 Summary
❑ INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER
❑ EVOLUTION – PC THROUGH PENTIUM
❑ SPECIFICATIONS
❑ IBM PC
❑ IBM PC - XT
❑ IBM PC - AT
❑ IBM PC - AT 286
❑ IBM PC - AT 386
❑ IBM PC - AT 486
❑ PENTIUM
Comparison Chart
Comparison Chart
Comparison Chart
 PC SYSTEM
➢ Functional Blocks
➢ System unit
➢ Display unit
➢ Keyboard
 Functional Blocks
➢ A system consists of a system unit, an
input device (Keyboard and Mouse) and
an output device (monitor).
➢ It have a mass storage medium
(Floppy/Hard disk/CD/DVD)
➢ Modems and Scanners may also used
Block Diagram of PC
System Units
 Motherboard
➢ It is called as System Board
➢ It holds the system’s microprocessor,
base memory and support circuitry like
bus decode logic, DMA logic, interrupt
logic, control logic, and self test and boot-
up ROM
➢ Some motherboards have drive interface
logic, printer interface logic and serial
interface logic.
Mother Board & Functional Parts
Daughter boards/Interface cards
➢ They are electronic circuits that enable a PC to
connect to or interface with another device.
➢ These are inserted into one of the I/O expansion slots
in the motherboard
➢ Interface cards used in PC are
⚫ Video display card, IDE (Integrated drive electronics

for connection of storage device HDD,CD/DVD)

card, SCSI (Small computer system interface card
For Data transfer of PC and Peripheral) and
Network interface card( connect computer to a
computer network)
Video Expansion Card

Graphic Card or Display Card

Digital Visual Interface
Audio Expansion Card

Audio card with different jacks

 Modem

Modem card with two RJ-11 ports

PCI E LAN Card 10 By 1000
Ethernet Gigabit
 Expansion Slots
➢ The interface cards are connected to I/O
expansion slots in the motherboard.
➢ The slot is designed to transfer 8 bits data at a
time and has 20 addressing lines for handling 1
MB memory.
➢ It contain 8 bit/16 bit/32 bit/64 bit bidirectional
data bus, address line, interrupts, control lines
for memory and I/O read or write, clock and
timing lines, DMA control lines, memory refresh
timing control lines, channel check line power
and ground for the adaptors
➢ Four voltage levels are provided for I/O card: +5
V dc, -5 V dc, +12 V dc and -12 V dc
➢ Functions are provided in edge connector slots
➢ Bus architectures are
1. 8 bit bus
2. 16 bit ISA (Industry Standard architecture) bus
3. Micro channel architecture bus
4. EISA (Extended ISA) Bus
5. VESA (Video electronics standard architecture) bus
6. PCI (Peripheral component interconnect) bus
 Expansion slots

Different expansion slots with their names

 PCI Express slots

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) express slots family

Front panel controls
➢ A built-inspeaker or a piezo electric
buzzer is available
➢ The speaker is used during booting to
indicate the power supply and self test
functions
 Rear side connectors
➢ Serial port controller
➢ Parallel port controller
➢ USB connector (Universal serial bus)
➢ VGA video port (Video graphics array)
➢ Keyboard connector
➢ Audio video connectors
➢ BNC/RJ-45 connectors (LAN)
⚫ Bayonet Neill-Concelman/Registered Jack
Rear side (Back end) connectors
 Cable and Connectors
➢A3 wire standard power input cable
➢ 36pin/ 40 pin Flat ribbon type cable
➢ SMPS have 6 connectors
⚫ 2 six-pin connectors
⚫ 4 four-pin connectors
 VGA Cable HDMI (Display Port)
• D-Sub cable • one end to: computer monitor, TV
• Analog video cable • other end to: HDMI port on PC
PS/2 Cable

one end to: PS/2 keyboard, PS/2 mouse

other end to: PS/2 ports on computer

Purple PS/2 port: keyboard

Green PS/2 port: mouse

USB to PS/2 adapter CONVERTER

Ethernet Cable - (RJ-45 cable)

One end to: Router, Network switch

Other end to: Ethernet Port on PC
 USB Cable
❑ USB 2.0 and 3.0 cables
❑ USB 2.0 ports have a black tips
❑ USB 3.0 port have a blue tips
(sometimes you can find a SS "Super Speed" label on
it)

❑ Storage devices: USB flash drive, external hard

drive, external optical drive

❑ Input devices: USB keyboard (wired and wireless),

USB mouse (wired and wireless), webcam, scanner,
gamepad

❑ Output devices: printer, all-in-one office machine,

USB speaker

❑ Wireless adapters: network (Wi-Fi) adapter,

Bluetooth adapter, 3G adapter

❑ Data (and charging) cable for mobile devices such

as mobile phone, tablet, MP3 player
Thunder Bolt - USB-C
Mostly seen on laptops and Apple
Macs these cables are high speed and
are capable of carrying Data, video
and other information.

There are 2 current types of

Thunderbolt, the older version
Thunderbolt 2 is seen below but this
can also be confused with Mini Display
ports as they look identical and only
visual difference is the picture beside
the port.

Thunderbolt 2 (left) has a lightning

symbol and carries Data and video.

The Mini Display Port (right) will only

carry Video.
Thunderbolt 3 also known as
USB C on Apple Macs.
 3.5mm Audio Cable (Phone connector)

Green audio port: computer

speakers or headphones
Pink audio port: microphone
Blue audio port: MP3 player, CD
player, DVD player, turntable,
electric guitar etc. (line-in port to
play and record sounds from the
above devices)
Input - Output Ports (Serial Port)
I/O Ports –Parallel Port
I/O Ports - Game Port
 SMPS
➢ The power supply is capable of giving a continuous
output of 135 watts.
➢ It deliver 4 discrete outputs
➢ +5V dc power drives the cooling fan arrangement.
 Switch Mode Power Supply
(SMPS)

SMPS Unit AC power socket

 Floppy disk drives

➢ FDD of either 5¼” or 3½” type or both

➢ Connected to motherboard through IDE
card
➢ 5¼” FDD have storage upto 1.2MB
➢ 3½” FDD have storage upto 2.88MB
Floppy Disk and Drive (FDD)
 Hard disk drives

➢ In1984, IBM introduced 10MB HDD

➢ Nowadays minimum storage capacity of
1GB to a maximum .
➢ Connect 4 HDDs in a PC
➢ They are connected to the CPU through
IDE card or SCSI cards
Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
 CD-ROM Drive

➢ Itis used to read data from compact disks

➢ Available in various speeds from 12x to
64x. X represents data transfer rate i.e
150mbps
➢ Two models – Internal CD drive and
External CD drive
➢ Audio/video CDs and data CDs
➢ CD writers also available
 Display Unit
➢ It is a VGA based colour or monochrome monitor
➢ It has its own power supply for CRT
➢ A max. horizontal frequency of 85 KHz and a
max. vertical frequency of 60 Hz.
➢ The resolution ranges from 640 x 480 to 1600 x
1200 dots
➢ It displays 80 characters horizontally and 25
lines vertically
➢ Each character box is 14 dots high and 9 dots
wide
 Keyboard
➢ It has 6 feet flexible coiled cable
➢ Power to the keyboard through a 5v and
ground
➢ 2 bidirectional signal lines
➢ It has an Intel 8048 chip to perform the
keyboard functions
 INSIDE PC
➢ Motherboard
➢ BIOS
➢ Bus standards
➢ SMPS
➢ I/O ports
 MOTHERBOARD
➢ The main functional blocks of a motherboard are
⚫ CPU – Brain of the computer which perform computing tasks. It have a
heat sink on it. A small cooling fan also used
⚫ BIOS – It is a ROM chip. It is used in system booting process and Power
on self test (POST)
⚫ RAM – Random access memory. It is used to store programs and data
temporarily. Its specifications are memory capacity and speed. (4 to 128
MB capacity and 60 to 100 ns speed)
⚫ Cache RAM – Fast memory placed between CPU and RAM. It speeds
up the overall performance of the system. It is costlier than RAM
⚫ Bus expansion slots – System expansion is possible by using adapters.
ISA bus, VESA bus and PCI local bus slots are available.
⚫ On-board I/O connectors – Serial ports (COM1, COM2) and Parallel
ports (LPT1 LPT2) are available for connecting Mouse and MODEM,
Printers and external drives.
⚫ On-board IDE connectors – It is for connecting FDD, HDD and CD drives
Mother Board & Functional Parts
Motherboard
CPU - Processor
Processor Cooling Fan
 BIOS –Basic Input / Output System
➢ ROM-BIOS is a set of programs which perform the
most basic, low-level and intimate control and
supervision operations.
➢ It is partly software and partly hardware.
BIOS services
➢ It is divided into three functional parts:
⚫ 1.start up routines,
⚫ 2. service handling and
⚫ 3. hardware interrupt handling.
 1.Start up routines
➢ The main parts of start-up routines are POST,
initialization and Boot routine.
➢ POST routines test that the computer is in good
working order.
➢ The initialization involves routines like creating
the interrupt vectors
➢ Boot routine – The boot strap process involves
the ROM-BIOS attempting to read a boot record
from the beginning of a disk. The boot program
begins the process of loading DOS.
BIOS organisation
 2. Service handling routines
➢ To perform work for the programs.
➢ The programs may seek service requests
to clear the display screen, or to switch the
screen from text mode to graphics mode
or to read information from the disk or
write information onto the printer
 3. hardware interrupt handling
➢ It takes care of the independent needs of
the PC hardware.
➢ It operates separately but cooperate with
the service handling portion.
➢ For example, to display a letter on the
screen this routine generates interrupt.
 BIOS Interaction
-The application programs calls DOS for performing specific functions
i.e. program service requests.
-The DOS finds out the details and requirements of the application
program and calls the respective I/O drivers in BIOS.
-DOS supplies necessary parameters to BIOS and BIOS issues
appropriate commands to the hardware
 BUS STANDARDS
➢ Bus Architecture
➢ PC/PC-XT Bus
➢ PC-AT/ISA Bus
➢ EISA Bus
➢ MCA Bus
➢ VESA Local (VL) Bus
➢ PCI Bus
➢ AGP – Accelerated Graphics Port
➢ USB – Universal Serial Bus
➢ IEEE 1394 Fire Wire – A Bus Standard
 Bus Architecture
➢ Bus is a group of wires through which the CPU communicates with memory,
coprocessor, keyboard and other ICs in the motherboard.
➢ A standard bus is needed for connecting external peripherals.
➢ Designing an expansion board must follow the connector specifications.
➢ Bus architecture system describes the method how the CPU is attached to
its memory, how the peripheral device controllers (hard disks, floppy disks,
CD-ROM drive) are attached to the system and how the expansion adapters
(display adapters, LAN adapters) are attached to the system.
➢ Many standards were developed with bus data width from 8 bits to 64 bits
and performance ranging from 1MB/second to 528 MB/second.
 PC/PC-XT Bus

➢ This bus was introduced in IBMPC with 62 lines.

➢ There were 5 expansion slots in PC and 8 in PC-
XT.
➢ This bus has 8 bit data width.
➢ This bus architecture provides very efficient, low-
cost expansion bus capability.
➢ A system would use 4 of the 8 expansion slots
for display adapters, floppy disk adapter, HDD
adapters and a combination of serial and parallel
port adapter.
 PC-AT/ISA Bus
➢ PC-AT was the enhancement of the 8 bit PC-XT expansion bus with
increased bus width to 16 bits and 24 bit addressing.
➢ It retains the PC-XT’s 8 bit bus and 62 pin expansion slots.
➢ This bus is called PC-AT expansion bus.
➢ Intel gives specification to this bus and named as ISA (Industry
Standard Architecture) bus.
 EISA (Extended ISA) Bus
➢ It support 32 bit buses and with much higher data transfer rates up
to 32 MB/second
➢ The EISA system has two buses – Input/output and memory
 MCA Bus
➢ Micro channel Architecture bus was designed by IBM
➢ The concept was the ability for an adapter to take over the bus from
the CPU and transfer data to and from memory independently
➢ It is not compatible with ISA bus
 VESA Local (VL) Bus -
Video Electronics Standards Association.
➢ VGA display adapters attached through ISA bus was not capable of larger
display, high screen resolutions and greater colour depth to cope up with
Windows,
➢ This bus provided a standard for screen sizes, refresh and timing standards
of the PC monitor.
 PCI Bus
➢ Peripheral Component Interconnected bus
➢ It would attach the CPU’s local bus through a special local bus to PCI bridge
chip.
➢ It can be either 32 bits or 64 bits wide.
➢ It can give a maximum of 528 MB/second which is 42 times faster than ISA
bus
 AGP – Accelerated Graphics
Port
➢ It is a bus interface for graphics adapters.
➢ It speeds up 3-D graphics, 3-D
acceleration and full-motion playback.
➢ High resolution graphics is achieved.
➢ The different versions of AGP are 1x, 2x,
4x and 8x and all transfer 32 bits at a time.
➢ AGP slots are brown in colour and PCI
slots are white in colour.
 USB – Universal Serial Bus

➢ Itallows connection of 127 external

peripheral devices without degradation of
speed.
➢ Devices that can use USB include
keyboards, scanners, digital cameras,
webcams and CD-ROMs.
➢ USB devices supports plug and play.
SMPS – Switched Mode Power
Supplies
➢ Power supplies
⚫ Every electronic system is invariably powered by dc
source.
⚫ The dc supply provide regulated output voltage
against mains voltage and load current variations.
⚫ Power supplies are classified as ac/dc linear power
supplies, dc/dc converters and dc/ac inverters.
⚫ Based on regulation techniques, power supplies are
classified as linear and switched mode power
supplies
SMPS
➢ Switched mode power supplies
⚫ The ac power is rectified and filtered as high voltage dc.
⚫ It is chopped at a high frequency (10 to 100 KHz) using a transistor and
fed to the step down transformer.
⚫ As this transformer operates at a very high frequency, its size and weight
are very small.
⚫ The chopped waveform is rectified and filtered again.
⚫ A part of the output voltage is feed to drive the switching transistor which
provide the regulation.
⚫ The output is regulated using PWM.
⚫ As the load increases, output voltage tends to fall. The PWM control
senses the change and increases the turn ON time of the transistor.
Increased ON time, which increased amount of energy will be passed
through the transformer and the output voltage will be maintained.
⚫ Similarly an increase in the output voltage causes a reduction in the ON
time and reduces the amount of energy passing through the transformer
until the output voltage is maintained at original value.
⚫ The width or the ON time of the oscillator is controlled by the voltage
feedback from the secondary rectifier output which forms a closed loop
regulator.
➢ Terms
⚫ High efficiency, small weight , small size and increase the

cost
⚫ RF radiation due to switching of currents and high ripple

output are the disadvantages

⚫ RF radiation can be reduced by shielding the core and the

entire unit.
➢ SMPS for Computers
⚫ It provides +5V, -5V, +12V and -12V.

⚫ +5V used for most electronic circuitry

⚫ -5V used for dynamic memory bios voltage

⚫ +12v used for operate the disk drive motors

⚫ -12V used for RS 232C serial port

⚫ P8 and P9 connectors are provided

⚫ Each component draws different power level

⚫ Motherboard and HDD draws 35W power.

 I/O PORTS
➢ Serial port
➢ Parallel port
➢ Game port
➢ USB port
 I/O PORTS
➢ Most of the Input-Output (I/O) devices like keyboard,
mouse, printers, modems and other devices are
connected to the computer system through an interfacing
facility called I/O ports
➢ The data communications between devices and the
system are established through these ports
➢ The keyboard, mouse and speakers are connected
through serial ports.
➢ General purpose I/O ports include serial port, parallel
port and game port
 Serial port
➢ In a serial Interface technique, the data is transmitted as 1 bit at a
time through a single wire
➢ The parallel data (byte) from the computer bus is converted into
serial data (bits) and sent through a serial cable
➢ Data transfer rate is slow down
➢ RS232 is the serial communication standard
➢ The system supports two serial ports COM1 and COM2
➢ A 9-pin DB9 connector used with COM1and 25-pin DB25 connector
is used with COM2 for connecting devices
➢ Serial ports can be enabled by BIOS setup
Input-Output Ports -Serial Port
 Parallel port
➢ In a parallel interface technique the data i.e the entire
byte is transferred to the devices
➢ It is much faster than serial communication link
➢ Devices like printers, scanners and plotters are
connected to the system through female D25 pin
connector
➢ A system normally supports two parallel ports LPT1 and
LPT2
➢ External CD-ROM drives, external HDD, ZIP drives and
other mass storage devices
➢ Recent PCs have External parallel port (EPP) and
Extended Capability Port (ECP)
I/O Ports –Parallel Port
 Game Port
➢ This port is used for connecting game
controllers like joystick
➢ The game port supports two game
controllers at a time using a special split
cable
➢ It is available through a standard 15-pin D
shell connector
➢ It is responsible for reporting the X and Y
positions of the joystick to the system
I/O Ports - Game Port
 USB port
➢ It is a peripheral bus standard that allows
a variety of peripheral devices to be
connected to computers simultaneously
➢ It is a single, standardized, easy-to-use
way to connect up to 127 USB devices
➢ A device is connected by plugging it to the
USB connector
 USB Cable
❑ USB 2.0 and 3.0 cables
❑ USB 2.0 ports have a black tips
❑ USB 3.0 port have a blue tips

❑ Storage devices: USB flash drive, external hard

drive, external optical drive

❑ Input devices: USB keyboard (wired and wireless),

USB mouse (wired and wireless), webcam, scanner,
gamepad

❑ Output devices: printer, all-in-one office machine,

USB speaker

❑ Wireless adapters: network (Wi-Fi) adapter,

Bluetooth adapter, 3G adapter

❑ Data (and charging) cable for mobile devices such

as mobile phone, tablet, MP3 player
 On-Board Memory
➢ The computers store data and instructions
in their memory and process it. The results
are also stored in the memory
➢ The memory on the system motherboard
is called main memory and it is a
semiconductor memory
➢ There are RAM chips and ROM chips on
the system board
➢ Some daughter boards also have memory
on them
 PC’s Memory Organisation
➢ The main memory on the motherboard called Random access memory
(RAM) is arranged like a two dimensional matrix with rows and columns
➢ The program and the data are stored in this memory for immediate use by
the processor
➢ The processor can access the program and data in any area of memory in
any order
➢ This method of access is called Random Access Memory and it is volatile.
➢ Each memory location is identified by a row and column number called its
address
➢ Two memory locations can be addressed by a single line.
➢ 1024 or 1k memory locations can be addressed by 10 lines and these lines
are called address lines
➢ The data to be stored or to be read is also transferred on lines called data
bus
➢ A 16-bit processor will have a 16 data lines and a 32-bit processor will have
a 32 data lines
 Dynamic RAM
➢ It is the commonly used memory type in computers
➢ These memory chips employ capacitance effect of a
Field Effect Transistor (FET) to store electrical charges
➢ To ensure integrity of data, the capacitive elements
have to be refreshed at regular intervals
➢ Common access time for DRAM are between 50 and
70 nanoseconds
➢ Fastest DRAM chips have a access time of 50 ns
➢ It is not synchronized to the system clock and is called
asynchronous memory
➢ It is not suitable for use in high speed (>66MHz)
memory systems
 Synchronous RAM
➢ Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) is
synchronized to the system clock
➢ It is much faster than asynchronous
DRAM
➢ It can be used to improve the performance
of the system
➢ They have access time of 10 or 12 ns
➢ The have speed of 83 or 100 MHz
 Fast Page Mode (FPM) DRAM
➢ It is slightly faster than conventional DRAM
➢ It works by sending the row address once for
many accesses to memory locations near each
other, improving access time
Extended Data Out (EDO) DRAM
➢ It is asynchronous DRAM and is called hyper page
. mode DRAM
➢ It is slightly faster than FPM memory
➢ Its feature is one access to the memory can begin
. before the last one has finished
 Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM)
➢ It doubles the bandwidth of the memory by transferring
data twice per cycle on both the rising and falling
edges of the clock signal
➢ It is also used by the new AGP technology to double
the performance
Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM)
➢ It works like an internal bus
➢ It is based on a channel with a high speed 16-bit
bus running at a clock rate of 400MHz
➢ Its bandwidth approximately 1.6GB/s
 Cache Memory (Level 1 & Level 2)
➢ Catching is a technique that uses a small amount of expensive
high speed memory to hold recently accessed data
➢ It is a faster memory and is expensive
➢ The memory controller copies a whole block of recently
accessed memory to the cache
➢ It is possible to achieve a cache hit rate of 90% and is called
Level 1 cache
➢ For faster data access a larger cache Level 2 memory can be
used
Extended/Expanded/Virtual Memory
➢ The 8088 processor with 20 address lines can map a memory
space of 1 MB
➢ The user can access only 640KB and the remaining memory for
other system use
➢ The first 640KB memory is called the low memory and
remaining (640 -1024KB) is called the high memory
➢ The processor can access only 640 KB
➢ The memory beyond 640 KB is called the Extended memory
➢ The memory available on the expansion adapter card is called
the expanded memory
➢ Windows programs provide facility to block a portion of the
secondary memory (hard disk) to be used as a main memory
called Virtual memory. The user can specify the size of the
virtual memory area
 Memory Packaging
➢ Memory is made from small semiconductor chips and must be packaged into
less fragile (strong) and tiny to integrate with system
➢ The types are
Single Inline Memory module(SIMM)
Dual Inline Memory module (DIMM)
Rambus Inline Memory Module (RIMM)
 Single Inline Memory module(SIMM)

➢ The most common memory format used in PC

➢ Available in two types: 30-pin and 72-pin
➢ They are placed into special sockets on the
motherboard
➢ 30-pin SIMMs have 1 to 16MB and provides 1 byte of
data with 1 additional parity bit
➢ 72-pin SIMMs provide 4 bytes of data at a time (32
bits) with 4 bits for parity
➢ It is available in two styles: single sided and double
sided
 Dual Inline Memory module (DIMM)
➢ Early Memory chips available in Dual Inline Packages
(DIPs)
➢ Chips directly soldered onto the motherboard would
create problems if memory failed
➢ In newer systems, memories are placed in sockets

Rambus Inline Memory module (RIMM)

➢ DRDRAM is designed to use a special types of
module called a RIMM
 Hard Disk Drive
➢ Introduction
⚫ The hard disk is the prime storage area for storing programs and
data.
⚫ Data is stored on rigid metal platters, which cannot be bend or flex.
⚫ These platters are not removable and also called fixed disk drives.
⚫ Sometimes these drives are called Winchester drives
⚫ In 1960, IBM released a hard disk with metal platters and floating
heads
⚫ Initially its capacity was 30 megabytes
Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
 Hard Disk Drive Sub-Assemblies
➢ A hard disk drive is made up of several physical components:
⚫ Disk platters

⚫ Read/write head

⚫ Head actuator

⚫ Spindle motor

⚫ Logic board

⚫ Cable and connectors

⚫ Bezel or face plate

➢ The platters, spindle motor, heads and head actuator mechanisms are
contained in a sealed chamber called the hard Disk Assembler and is
treated as a single component
➢ The logic boards, bezel and mounting hardware are external
components of a drive
 Head Actuator
➢ It is the mechanical system that moves the read/write heads across the
disk and positions them accurately over the desired cylinder
➢ Head actuator mechanisms are of two main types. They are
⚫ Stepper motor actuators

⚫ Voice coil actuators

➢ The type of actuator mechanism employed with speed, accuracy,

position, vibration and overall reliability

➢ Stepper motor actuator is less reliable than voice coil actuator

➢ Voice coil actuators are more expensive

➢ For high capacity hard disks employ voice coil actuators

➢ Stepper Motor Actuator
⚫ A stepper motor is an electrical motor that steps or moves from
position to position . It cannot position itself between step
positions. They are physically small about 1 to 3 inches. These
motors are outside the sealed Hard Disk Assembly (HDA).
➢ Voice coil Actuator
• This mechanism is the same as in the audio speaker.
• In a hard disk an electromagnetic coil moves on a track through a
stationary magnet. No contact occurs between the coil and magnet
other than magnetic interaction.
• The coil mechanism is directly connected to the head rack. As the
electromagnetic coils are energised they attract or repel the
magnet and cause the head rack to move.
• A special advantage of using a voice coil positioner is automatic
parking. When a hard disk drive is powered off, the heads are
pulled back into platters to land by spring tension
 Spindle Motor
➢ It spins the platters connected to the spindle
➢ These platters revolve at exactly 3600 rpm
➢ The speed of the motor has to be controlled very
precisely
➢ The speed control is fully automatic with feedback
loop control
➢ The drives have the motor mounted in the centre of
the platters and this facilitates having more number of
platters inside the HAD.
 Logic Boards
➢ A disk drive will have a board containing the circuit
that control the drive’s spindle and head actuator
system. These are called logic boards.
➢ They present data to the controller in a planned
format.
➢ Certain drives have the controller built in directly on
the drive reducing the cost of the disk drive.
 Hard Disk Controller
➢ Introduction
⚫ The hard disk control only executes communications between CPU
and the disk drive
⚫ The commands of the processor are to be interpreted correctly and
executed
⚫ The status of the hard disk received through control signals from
the drive is to be communicated to the processor
⚫ The data to be written is to be given with write precompensation
signals like early and delay
⚫ The read data should be separated from clock pulses to get the data
⚫ The encoding and error correction codes are to be generated and
modulated with the data during writing
⚫ These functions are done by disk controller
 HDC – Functional Blocks
The major functional blocks in a disk controller are:
• System interface unit
• Sector buffer RAM
• HDC BIOS ROM
• Timing and control unit
• Hard disk controller
• Read/write logic
• Drive interface logic
HDC – Functional Blocks
 HDC Functions
➢ System Interface Unit
⚫ The HDC communicates to the CPU and the DMA controller
⚫ CPU can be by-passed and HDC will be working with DMA
controller
⚫ The CPU sends commands to HDC and the HDC informs the CPU
about the disk drive status
⚫ The HDC sends data to memory or receives data from memory in
the DMA mode
⚫ The communication between CPU and the HDC is established by
the system interface unit
⚫ Sector buffer RAM is a temporary storage to keep one full sector
data during read and write commands
⚫ The data transfer task is effectively managed by this RAM and is
also stores the information of disk format procedures.
 HDC Functions ….
• HDC BIOS ROM stores the I/O drive routines for hard disk
operation. It also contains the parameters of the hard disk.
• The timing and control unit generates different timing and control
signal for the I/O interface, sector buffer RAM and to control other
sections
➢ Read/write Logic
⚫ The serialiser converts the system byte from parallel to serial data
⚫ The write precompensation logic analyses the data bit pattern and
introduces delay, advancement, normal timing of write data pulse.
⚫ The data separator logic separates clocks from the data read from
the disk drive and generates window signal
⚫ The deserialiser converts serial data from the disk to parallel byte
and sends it to the CPU
⚫ The error code check logic generates ECC during write operation
and verifies the same during the read operation.
 HDC Functions ….

➢ Hard Disk Controller

⚫ This is the heart of the controller operation.
⚫ It coordinates and commands all other functional blocks.
⚫ Controller can be a standard IC or custom made processor
⚫ Drive interface logic establishes communication between HDC and
HDD
⚫ The status signals from the drive are communicated to the HDC
⚫ The other control signals and data are sent to HDD and HDC.